Older Women, Younger Men

Considering all the boundaries Madonna has crashed through in her more than 20-year career, the age of her second husband would hardly seem worth noticing. But that didn't stop the tabloids from blaring headlines such as "Her plot to get toy-boy lover to altar."

Plot or no plot, English director Guy Ritchie, 34, doesn't seem like anyone's plaything. He first met Madonna, 44, four years ago when, as the red-hot director of the film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, he attended a luncheon hosted by Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler. There followed a year of cross-Atlantic, off-and-on courting that Madonna later termed long-distance angst; in 1999, they got serious. And then she got pregnant. In August 2000, Madonna gave birth to son Rocco Ritchie, who joined her then-4-year-old daughter, Lourdes (dad is former flame Carlos Leon). When the proud parents brought their son home, Madonna found a crumpled paper bag with a small box inside. "It was a diamond ring," Madonna recalled, "and I screamed." Four months later, Madonna and Ritchie had a five-day-long, $2 million wedding at 21-bedroom Skibo Castle in the Scottish Highlands. If the wedding seemed lavish even by celebrity standards, it's partly because the bride had waited a long time before giving marriage a second shot. Her first go-around, to actor Sean Penn, ended in 1989 after four tumultuous years. "He loathed her career and the endless intrusions on their privacy," says celebrity columnist and longtime Madonna pal Liz Smith. "The divorce shattered her and made her determined that if she married again, it would be for good." "Guy's an alpha male and she needs that," Greer notes. "I think his age is irrelevant to her. It's more that he has the backbone and presence of mind to know who he is in the context of her life and fame." Clearly, Madonna likes it that way. "I have no interest in being in a relationship with someone who is a pushover," she has said. Certainly a two-generation, two-continent, two-career, two-kid relationship won't be a piece of cake. But as Liz Smith says, "If it were easy, Madonna wouldn't want it. She does it the hard way."

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